…I won’t post, here I am. The new director of the Vatican Observatory, in an interview with CNS:

Father Funes spoke Aug. 24 in a phone interview with Catholic News Service from the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome. On Aug. 19, Pope Benedict XVI named the 43-year-old priest director of the astronomical observatory.

Father Funes said he thought it would be an almost impossible mission to match the "wonderful work" of U.S. Jesuit Father George Coyne, 73, who was leaving as the observatory director after 26 years.

Father Funes dismissed speculation that Father Coyne had been forced out of the job because of his strong comments in support of evolution and criticism of the "intelligent design" movement.

"It’s simply not true that this was the reason he left," Father Funes said. He said the appointment was a natural development after Father Coyne’s long tenure and one of many personnel changes being made at the Vatican under the new pope.

As for his own views on evolution, Father Funes emphasized that he was an astronomer specializing in galaxies, not a biologist, and so did not plan to make statements about Darwinism and intelligent design.

He said the role of the observatory is first of all to "do good science in astronomy," and in this way favor the ongoing dialogue between faith and science.

Father Funes, who has taught an introductory course in astronomy at the University of Arizona, said he emphasizes to his students that science is about natural causes.

"I am for good science and good theology. No more than that," he said.

That is not to suggest that faith and science do not influence each other, he said.

"Sometimes science can lead us to believing God. Through reason, the study of the nature of the universe can be a way to arrive at knowledge of God. I would say that," he said.

"I don’t see any contradictions between science and religion. What I see are tensions. But it is healthy to have tensions in life. Sometimes tensions allow us to mature," he said.

Also from CNS: Cardinal Schonborn’s latest words on the subject:

In 2005, Cardinal Schonborn helped fuel the debate over evolution and intelligent design when he wrote in The New York Times that science offers "overwhelming evidence for design in biology." He later said some scientists had turned Darwin’s teachings into an ideological "dogma" that admitted no possibility of a divine design in the created world.

In Rimini, the cardinal said he did not regret writing The New York Times article, but said that in retrospect he might have been more nuanced.

"Perhaps it was too much crafted with a hatchet," he said.

Cardinal Schonborn said there should be no doubt that the church does not support creationism, the idea that the biblical account of the creation of the world in six days should be taken literally.

"The church teaches that the first page of the Book of Genesis is not a page of science," he said.

But when teaching evolutionary theory, he said, schools should underline the points still awaiting clarification, the "missing links" in the theory which were recognized by Darwin himself, he said.

Cardinal Schonborn said Darwinian theory and the faith can coexist, and he proposed a metaphorical image: Darwin’s scientific ladder of rising evolutionary development on one hand, and on the other the biblical Jacob’s ladder, from which angels descended from heaven to earth.

The cardinal said the images offer "two directions, two movements, which only when observed together allow for anything close to a complete perspective." At the center of these two movements is the figure of Jesus Christ, he said.

Cardinal Schonborn said it was important to realize that Darwin’s theories continue to have an impact in economic as well as biological fields. For example, he cited a link between ideological Darwinism and some capitalist theories that consider high unemployment simply a byproduct of a necessary economic natural selection.

In bioethics, he said, the church’s differences with ideological Darwinism become important.

"Despite sometimes heavy criticism, the church continues to firmly believe that there is in nature a language of the Creator, and therefore a binding ethical order in creation, which remains a fundamental reference point in bioethical matters," he said.